Seattle Documentary Filmmaker

Monthly Archives: March 2014

The new season of Reel NW is about to kick off, with new host Warren Etheredge. And I’m delighted to announce that one of the shorts that Lisa Cooper and I made, The Metalsmith, will be among the many locally produced documentaries that will air on the show. Our film will screen four times, at:

4:50am on 4/15
8:50pm on 4/17
9:50pm on 4/17
12:50pm on 4/18

The new season begins April 11, and the lineup includes a slew of films I’m looking forward to seeing:

I’m sure host Warren Etheredge will have many more great films up his sleeve. Warren is known for his weekly television series The High Bar, where he has interviewed the likes of Jodie Foster, Cornel West, Nora Ephron, and Salman Rushdie. On Reel NW, he’ll be bringing you the filmmakers behind the features and docs that air on Reel NW.

I credit the guys from Wrightsville Beach Studios with teaching me almost everything I know about dialog recording, thanks to Sound for Film and Television. Now, they are seeking funding to produce a second volume. By backing their Kickstarter campaign today, you can save $25 off the final price. I can’t wait to get my hands on this.

Here’s the scoop:

At Wrightsville Beach Studios, we’ve spent the last 8 years making great, high-quality training videos teaching people how to make films. Oh, sure, everyone with a YouTube account does that, right? Not the way we do it — we do it with wit, humor, and sketch comedy, and we don’t just stage “setups” or give you “tips” and “tricks”; we go behind the cameras of real, cinematic scenes and short films made specifically for our lessons. We not only teach you how and why to do it, we’re teaching you WHILE we’re doing it — and the proof is right there on the screen.

But don’t let us tell you — here’s what our SOUND volume I viewers have had to say (see these reactions and more starting here):

“This is a must-have for any independent filmmaker making their way into this business. Even if you know everything there is to know about sound, you’ll enjoy this DVD.”

“Lots of practical, hands-on information in a very entertaining package. It’s the only one I’ve found so far which really spends a decent time teaching technique.”

Now, we want to do it again! We want to bring the same kind of immersive, high-quality lessons combined with comedy, cinematic vignettes designed to teach you the skills, and we’ll even follow the production of a short film from start to finish, covering advanced sound recording topics on set and finishing with the professional sound mix in post.

Production topics to include:

PRE-PRODUCTION, where the most important planning takes place.

Dual-system recording

Slating

Timecode/Jam synch

Sound recorders

Wireless systems: UHF/VHF/Digital/Analog/Diversity/Non-diversity

Complex booming scenarios

Reality TV/news sound setup

Field/multi-channel mixing

Stereo recording

And then we’ll hand off the program to POST-PRODUCTION host David Jimerson, as he also checks in with Alex Markowski, post-production professional and professor of film studies at UNC-Wilmington. We’ll take the sound we recorded during production and follow the art, craft, and technique of turning it all into a finished professional sound mix.

Post-Production topics to include:

PRE-PRODUCTION, coordinating with production recording with post-production concerns in mind

Proper sound mixing studio setup

Synching via timecode, synching via waveform

Intros to Pro Tools, PluralEyes, other software

Pulldown/pullup

Asset management

Setting up audio tracks in editing for optimal export to sound post

Sound editing workflow

Working with EQ, compressors, limiters, and other sound filters and FX

First you get a DSLR, then you get a follow focus unit. Then a bunch of stuff happens, and you end up with a pile of this on your living room floor:

Today I’m happy to report that such bandaids for dslr lenses are no longer necessary, thanks to a mechanical engineer named Sean McCurry, who is quietly revolutionizing the follow focus gear, one perfectly printed lens gear at a time. Wait, printed? But before we get into that…

I guess you could say that I’m a focus gear whore. I feel like I’ve tried just about everything on the market in hopes of finding one that worked seamlessly (so to speak) with my set of Zeiss/Contax primes. But every one I’ve tried has left me cold. To be specific:

Redrock Micro gears are nice because they give some autofocus lenses some much-needed extra throw. But with my Zeiss primes, I found the extra throw to be too much. And the ergonomics suck: too big to store in my lens case, they have to be assembled before every shoot. Major bummer. I want gears that I can buy and forget about,.

Zacuto Gears are basically thin bands of plastic that have a big awkward bump. They get the job done, but I’ve had them slip off my lenses more than once while running and gunning, because the bit that holds the two ends together gets caught on things. Oh, and they aren’t cheap.

If you want cheap, you want Jag35 zip-tie gears. But like the Zacuto, they catch on things, and they don’t add any throw diameter to your lens, either.

Genus gears are one-size-fits all, which makes them great for larger diameter lenses like my 300mm f/4 Nikon. It’s the only gear I could find to fit it. But not at all great for more standard size lenses, where the tightening screw gets right in the middle of your business. Plus, they tend to loosen up during use, and you have to remember to keep retightening them.

One thing I have never tried: Duclos cine-mod. This is the gold standard of lens gears. And by gold, I mean $105 a pop. But what’s prevented me from going Duclos is that you have to send your lens away for an unknown length of time to have the mod done. That more than anything has been the deal-breaker for me. I need my lenses.

Above: iPhone pano of my set of Zeiss primes, with Sean’s gears.

So. Is it too much to ask to have something as perfect as the Duclos mod, for a third of the price, that without any tools, I can install myself?

Enter a mechanical engineer named Sean McCurry. I accidentally discovered his brilliant work while surfing on Ebay a few weeks ago, when I was startled to see a listing for “Seamless follow focus gears” specifically made for Contax-Zeiss primes. I have a lens set that ranges in size from 25mm – 135mm, and Sean had each of my focal lengths covered. For $35, I took a chance and ordered one for my 50 f/1.7 prime. It arrived three or four days later, and with great curiosity I took it out of the box. Four pages of instructions on lens fitting were included, but were unnecessary: the gear fit PERFECTLY. I simply had to very carefully and slowly wiggle the gear on, until it seated firmly into the spot where I wanted it to stay on the focus barrel of the lens. The fit is so tight that it doesn’t slip at all, doesn’t require glue, and feels like it was made for my lens. Which, in fact, it was.

I’m not 100 percent sure how Sean is able to make such killer gears. But I’m confident it’s because he’s 3D printing them. A close examination of the gears reveals telltale patterns, strata in the plastic that are consistent with 3d printing (click image to enlarge):

One great thing about these gears is that I was able to place them at approximately the same position on 4 of my 5 lenses, so that when swapping lenses, I don’t have to adjust the focus puller position on the rails. Also, my previous gears would ride up and down the lens as they came in and out of their foam Pelican case, requiring constant readjustment, often in the middle of a shoot. These gears stay put.

Need more amazing? Beyond the great ergonomics, these gears producer smoother more predictable and repeatable pulls than I’m used to getting from my previous gears. Maybe it’s the extra gear depth, maybe it’s the precision of the printing, maybe it’s the Delrin they are made from. Whatever it is, these gears have taken my focus pulling to the next level.

Sean is currently making the gears for popular DSLR lenses that include the following:

Seattle, WA – Bicycling nudists, Rwandan filmmakers and a Seattle family confronted by terrorism are the intriguing characters you’ll meet at the second annual SEED Arts Cinema Series SEEDArts Cinema Series, “Made in Seattle: Homegrown Documentaries”. The two-day series, April 4 & 5, is comprised of three dynamic, award-winning, locally made documentaries to be screened at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 3515 S Alaska St, Seattle, WA 98118. The films are Finding Hillywood (4/4 at 7pm), Barzan (4/5 at 5pm), and Beyond Naked (4/5 at 7pm). Each film will be followed by a community conversation with the filmmakers and moderated by Rustin Thompson, The Restless Critic.

The Cinema Series opens on Friday, April 4 at 7pm with a screening of Finding Hillywood. Set amongst the hills of Rwanda, Finding Hillywood chronicles one man’s road to forgiveness, his effort to heal his country, and the realization that we all must one day face our past. A unique and endearing phenomenon film about the very beginning of Rwanda’s film industry and the pioneers who bring local films to rural communities. A real life example of the power of film to heal a man and a nation.

The Series continues on Saturday, April 5, with an evening double feature. At 5 pm, we present Barzan by directors Alex Stonehill & Bradley Hutchinson. Barzan is an intimate portrait of a suburban family ripped apart by a terrorism accusation. Shot both in Iraq and Seattle, this investigative documentary examines terrorism, immigration, and the sacrifices we make to protect the American dream.

The series concludes at 7pm with Beyond Naked, the “Best Documentary” of the Seattle True Independent Film Festival (2013). This film shows what happens when four first-timers accept a challenge to ride naked in Seattle’s legendary Solstice Parade. This feature-length documentary explores our deep-rooted fear and awkward fascination with nakedness through the lens of one of Seattle’s most popular traditions.

Admission to the Cinema Series is $5 per film. All films will be screened on the new digital projection system at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 3515 S Alaska St, Seattle, WA 98118. Limited concessions will be available. For more information and updates, call 206.760.4285 or visit www.rainiervalleyculturalcenter.org/cinema.

Magic Lantern raw keeps getting better. It’s been awhile since I downloaded and tested the latest nightly builds. Turns out there’s a LOT of progress being made: the latest releases include the option for a new recording file format called MLV (for magic lantern video). This format allows for some really great stuff, most significantly for me, audio recording.

Post-production keeps getting better, too. There’s a new batch-conversion utility called MLV Mystic that allows Mac users to unpack the MLV files directly into cinema DNG files, which can then be opened directly into Davinci Resolve 10.

HDMI monitoring is also vastly improved. Gone is the bug that caused pink-frame tearing when recording 3x (which at the press of a button turns any lens into a macro). No more pink frame tearing! Also, the monitor display bugs that incorrectly drew the boundaries of the frame are fixed.

HDMI tip: I discovered this weekend while testing that it’s critical to plug in your hdmi monitor to your camera in the correct order. First, with your camera off, power on your HDMI monitor and plug it into the camera. Then, power up the camera. This way, it will correctly draw the HDMI screen. Otherwise, you get some misaligned black bands encroaching into the display from top and bottom.

Another sweet thing, and this is a big one: I discovered after much testing that Magic Lantern’s focus peaking is just killer. It works like magic to help you find focus, and you can select from three settings: one for darkly lit subjects, one for brightly lit subjects, and one that is a bit of both, for average scenes. This peaking is the first I’ve ever used that actually works without over sharpening to death or otherwise unacceptably screwing with my monitor. I’ll be using it by default from now on.

All I can say is: thank you Magic Lantern team. You guys are tireless in continuing to unlock the potential of this amazing image making tool called the Canon DSLR. The raw video image coming out of this camera is breathtaking.